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Mental illness patients with chest pains at higher mortality risk

The death rate in men and women hospitalized for chest pain unrelated to heart disease is higer in those with a history of psychiatric illness than without. This is according to new research from Scotland.

The study found that the death rate one year after hospitalization for non-cardiac chest pain (NCCP) was higher in men and women with a previous psychiatric hospitalization than without. “We found that men and women with a prior psychiatric hospitalization were younger, more socioeconomically deprived and more likely to be suffering from diabetes or hypertension than those without a prior psychiatric hospitalization. Even after adjusting for these differences we found that the rate of death at one year from any cause and from cardiovascular disease was higher in men and women with a previous psychiatric hospitalization than without, with the excess risk being greatest in younger patients,” said Dr. Michelle Gillies, Clinical Lecturer in Epidemiology, at the University of Glasgow.

She continued, “Our findings are consistent with previous studies that have shown that patients with psychiatric illness have a greater risk of heart-related problems and are at a greater risk of death than the general population. In our study patients with psychiatric illness were at excess risk of death relative to the rest of the study population, despite having been assessed by hospital physicians for chest pain. A hospitalization for chest pain is a valuable opportunity to engage this difficult-to-reach population, assess cardiovascular risk and intervene to reduce risk. Our study highlights the need to carefully assess all patients who are admitted to hospital with chest pain and suggests that current approaches to this assessment may be less effective in patients with psychiatric illness Further studies to understand why this is so, are required.”

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